Football: CU Buffs will move Eric Bieniemy to sidelines

Offensive coordinator hopes to provide spark to Buffs

Eric Bieniemy came to Colorado with a primary purpose of helping the Buffaloes win football games.

The Buffs' offensive coordinator feels the best way for him to do that is to change his approach on game day.

On Tuesday, head coach Jon Embree announced that Bieniemy would coach from the sidelines on Saturday at Washington State (2-1), rather than his usual spot above the field in the coaches' box.

Along with that, quarterbacks coach Rip Scherer will remain in the coaches' box and help Bieniemy with play calling.

"I don't know if it helps," Bieniemy said. "But, I do know this: I've always been a hands-on type of individual. I've always fed off of energy. My job is to make sure our guys are holding themselves accountable in detail and in work, so I want to make sure I can get a feel for what's going on and grab a guy here and there and talk through it."

Through three games, CU has had a terrible season on both offense and defense, but the Buffs are hoping this move can help their struggling offense a bit.

CU is last in the Pac-12 in total offense (289.7 yards pergame, 113th nationally) and 11th in scoring (19.7 points per game, 105th nationally). CU's pass efficiency rating (100.2) is, by far, the worst in the conference. Oregon State is 11th at 118.1. Only two Pac-12 teams have been worse at running the ball.

Moving Bieniemy's game-day position may seem minor, but the Buffs hope it has a major impact.

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Bieniemy is a fiery coach and his presence on the sidelines could help.

"He's a not coach to be messed with," tackle David Bakhtiari said. "He'll make sure no heads go down and I'm pretty sure all the kids will be too scared to ever put their head down."

The Buffs figure to add quite a bit of needed passion to the sidelines with Bieniemy there.

"They're missing that energy and that enthusiasm," Bieniemy said the players. "Hopefully coming down there, it'll give them some type of boost."

Bieniemy said he and Embree have talked for weeks about Bieniemy moving to the field. After Saturday's 69-14 loss at Fresno State, he approached Embree and said it was time to make the change.

"There's nothing like stepping on the field," he said. "I'm looking forward to it. I just want to be down in the atmosphere and have some fun. Now I get to get down on the field, get a hold of everybody, sit them down, communicate more between series and just talk to them."

Scherer said the offensive players need their "general" down on the field.

"I think he connects with our players; he creates some emotion," Scherer said.

Bieniemy has always preferred to be on the field during games, and coached from the sidelines during CU's opener in 2011. He decided at that point, however, that being up top gave him a better perspective when trying to make play calls.

Since the second game of 2011, Bieniemy and Scherer have sat next to each other in the coaches' box during games. Now that they've worked together for a while, Bieniemy feels he can trust Scherer to be "my eyes and my ears" from the box. Scherer's role in that regard will become critical.

"It puts pressure on myself and it puts a little more pressure on the graduate assistants upstairs," Scherer said. "I'm more of a press box guy, (Bieniemy) is more of a sideline guy, so I think it'll work."

Bieniemy has been calling CU's plays and that won't change. Scherer said he would continue to make suggestions, as he always has, but that since he will have a clearer view of the field than Bieniemy, "he may rely on me more."

"Where I may be more involved is between series, giving him suggestions," Scherer said.

With CU's struggles, the play calling has become a bit of a target of critical fans. Asked to assess his play-calling through three weeks, Bieniemy said, "Obviously we're 0-3. Not good enough."

The hope is that this move will make a difference, but regardless of where Bieniemy coaches on game day, he said the results have to change.

"It all starts right here with me," he said. "We have to do a better job of getting our guys ready. For whatever reason, it's just not transferring over on game day. We've got to fix that."

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